Rent keeps falling across most regions in Metro Vancouver, but a couple of cities are seeing a trend upward.
The data comes from liv.rent’s latest national report.
In November, liv.rent says that rent continued to dip in Metro Vancouver’s most expensive cities, including Vancouver, Richmond and North Vancouver.
One Metro Vancouver city that is seeing a trend in the opposite direction is Langley, at least for furnished units.
“Aside from a brief dip in October, Langley has seen a steady upward push in furnished 1-bedroom rents since June. Langley is one of the few markets trending upward, with furnished 1-bedroom rents rising year-over-year (+5.29 per cent) and month-to-month (+5.52 per cent),” liv.rent notes.
Langley also saw an increase in unfurnished two and three-bedroom units compared to last month.
Burnaby was another city where liv.rent reported an increase for an unfurnished one-bedroom unit, with rents rising to $2,228 per month in November, up from $2,198 in October. Furnished units also saw a slight decrease in Burnaby.
Unfurnished units in November. (liv.rent)
On liv.rent’s platform, Surrey had the lowest asking rent for an unfurnished one-bedroom unit in Metro Vancouver.
“Vancouver stood out with the steepest drops, especially in two-bedroom (-12.49 per cent) and three-bedroom (-11.97 per cent) units,” liv.rent says.
In Vancouver, most neighbourhoods also saw year-over-year rent decreases, some by quite a large amount.
“With the exception of Shaughnessy, every Vancouver neighbourhood recorded a year-over-year decline in unfurnished one-bedroom rents. The steepest drops were seen in Dunbar-Arbutus (-18.10 per cent), Killarney (-14.92 per cent), and Marpole (-14.17 per cent), marking them as the hardest-hit areas in the city.”
Despite rents continuing to decrease in most Metro Vancouver cities, a recent report from SingleKey suggested that residents are still spending way too much of their income on housing costs and debt repayments.
Data from SingleKey’s Rent Intelligence Report shows that the average Canadian renter is earning around $67,537 per year, and the average household income is roughly $109,000. SingleKey says that the median renter age is 32 years old.
“In Vancouver, renters earn $146,194, maintain top-tier credit (731), and pay $2,891 in rent, yet still spend over 30 per cent of their income on housing.”
The data shows that B.C., as a province, as well as the City of Vancouver, have the highest average rent-to-income ratios in Canada.